reviewer1199877 - PeerSpot reviewer
Works at a educational organization with 11-50 employees
Real User
Instant data rollback, self-healing, and good reporting
Pros and Cons
  • "I really like how you can test the failover as often as you need."
  • "I think Zerto could do better with size planning because it would be nice to analyze a server for a week and give an estimate on sizing the Journal."

What is our primary use case?

We use Zerto to protect our staff information against ransomware and is outlined in our disaster recovery plan. We have a DR site that we failover to if anything happens at our primary data center. We have only our core services, that we could not live without, being protected.

How has it helped my organization?

It is very easy to use. Almost anyone in our IT team can manage it after not using it for months at a time. As the DR strategist here, I like that. I enjoy having a fast way to bring a server back up. It will take me longer to get to my desk and log into everything than it will to actually complete the failover. 

What is most valuable?

I really like how you can test the failover as often as you need.

The reports it generates are very good at showing our protection state.

It is self-healing in case I mess up on something and need to re-sync. When you are protecting Terabytes of data, this comes in handy.

What needs improvement?

I think Zerto could do better with size planning because it would be nice to analyze a server for a week and give an estimate on sizing the Journal. I find myself estimating too high.

It would be nice if I had an option to dynamically restore to any host in a cluster. Right now, if we have multiple things happen and the main host is down it will not work. 

Buyer's Guide
Zerto
June 2024
Learn what your peers think about Zerto. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2024.
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For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for three years.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We are only using a fraction of what it can do. If you add the backup function it scales very largely. I could see a hospital really finding this product useful.

How are customer service and support?

My first experience with technical support was not good at all. In the last few years, it has improved quite a bit. 

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Prior to this solution, we used storage mirroring and DFS syncing. Our old way used far too much storage. Zerto compresses the data well. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of this solution is very straightforward. We were making initial syncs in forty-five minutes. 

What about the implementation team?

We did both, with most over the phone. Their expertise was fine. I didn't in any way feel like I was not getting my questions answered. 

What was our ROI?

Our ROI happened in nine seconds.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I don't remember it being cheap. We started out slow, which was a good call. We found that in an event that was massive enough to cause an entire cluster to go offline we would be happy with our core services up and running.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

At the time, Zerto was the only product doing this so easily. It might still be.

What other advice do I have?

Don't underestimate how good it feels to rollback data instantly. It makes me look like a Wizzard at my desk. 

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Real User
Keeps regular backups of data for recovery
Pros and Cons
  • "We implemented Zerto because it is crucial for our organization, especially as we move into the cloud. We needed to ensure that we could retrieve data properly and migrate easily. The solution allows us to keep our users collaborating throughout the migration process, making it much quicker than our previous solution."
  • "The tool must improve its long-term storage cloud strategy, making it more seamless and improving the solution's downtime features."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution for disaster recovery purposes. 

What is most valuable?

We implemented Zerto because it is crucial for our organization, especially as we move into the cloud. We needed to ensure that we could retrieve data properly and migrate easily. The solution allows us to keep our users collaborating throughout the migration process, making it much quicker than our previous solution.

The most valuable feature is its simplicity. It's easy to use, especially when moving data to keep our users collaborating. Putting the server into maintenance mode and moving our systems has worked well for our team.

Zerto is easy to use because of its simple setup and configuration. It also has a user-friendly interface, making data migration, seamless server maintenance, data recovery, and automated replication easy to use.

The replication feature is very valuable. For example, the solution provides synchronous replication, ensuring that data is almost instantly copied to the recovery site with minimal latency. This real-time replication means that the data at the disaster recovery site is nearly up to date with the primary site, reducing data loss in the event of failure.

It is very important to our organization because replication is a fundamental aspect of modern IT infrastructure and disaster recovery. It ensures continued access by having a copy of the data available at a secondary location, which is critical for major business operations during a primary site failure. Even in cases of data loss, replication allows for the restoration of data from the latest copy, minimizing downtime and aiding in quick retrieval.

The main benefits of using Zerto include improved data protection, data recovery, and operational efficiency. Regarding data protection, replication's continuous availability and redundancy ensure that our data is always available at a secondary location, protecting against data loss. Redundancy means having multiple copies of data, which is critical for recovering from data corruption or loss.

We have used Zerto to protect VMs in our environment. Implementing automated backup solutions has helped us save time in data recovery situations. Regular backups ensure we always have copies of our data and systems for recovery. It has helped ensure that our organization is well-prepared to handle protection and disaster efficiently. By identifying the request and replying promptly, we can ensure the resilience of our overall service.

What needs improvement?

The tool must improve its long-term storage cloud strategy, making it more seamless and improving the solution's downtime features. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with the product for one and a half years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We did not encounter any issues in stability. 

How are customer service and support?

The solution's technical support is good. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We used AWS Cloud before Zerto. From my experience, both Zerto and AWS solutions are easy to use. They both have user-friendly interfaces that simplify managing disaster recovery tasks, including setting up replication and handling failover and failback processes.

AWS offers a wide range of cloud-native disaster recovery services, like AWS Backup and AWS Disaster Recovery, which are integrated into its management console. AWS also supports automation through APIs and integrates well with enterprise systems, which allows organizations to automate backup, recovery, and failover processes.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward and can be completed within a month. The configuration process is minimally complex. We first assess the current environment, looking at training requirements and infrastructure. After that, we do design and configuration, including architecture design, installation, and configuration. Lastly, we do testing and validation. We have finally distributed the team. After that, we will train our employees through training sessions. We'll give them documentation and train them. And lastly, we do the deployment rollout.

What about the implementation team?

Our in-house team did the deployment. There were ten resources. 

What other advice do I have?

Automated testing and recorded tests can vary based on several factors, including the complexity of our IT environment. For us, it takes around seven to eight days. It's still taking the same time, so we must explore more. Our team is exploring the process more, so it's still taking that much time.

I rate the overall product a nine out of ten. 

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
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Buyer's Guide
Zerto
June 2024
Learn what your peers think about Zerto. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2024.
793,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Sr Director Security Operations at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
We have been able to reduce our mean time to restoration quite significantly
Pros and Cons
  • "There are two things that are keeping us with the solution: 1. It does a very good job of keeping the data in sync at all times. 2. In the event of a failover or in the event of a contingency, we are able to retrieve the data very quickly without any issues."
  • "When we are trying to upgrade any virtual machines, we have to stop the virtual machines that have been replicated in Zerto and then upgrade or update to the virtual machines onsite. Instead of having to do it manually, there should be some way of automating that particular function."

What is our primary use case?

For all the most important applications, we are using Zerto as a hot site in case something were to go on with our on-prem data center-based applications. We can immediately resort to Zerto as a failover.

It's deployed for replication from our data center into the public cloud.

How has it helped my organization?

The most important thing is the mean time to restoration. When anything goes wrong, we should be able to rely on the failover data that is available, and we should be able to restore it as quickly as possible. We have been able to reduce that mean time to restore the data pretty significantly with Zerto. It's gone from a few hours to a few minutes.

What is most valuable?


There are two things that are keeping us with the solution:

  1. It does a very good job of keeping the data in sync at all times. 
  2. In the event of a failover or in the event of a contingency, we are able to retrieve the data very quickly without any issues.

Both of these points are valuable to us because we have application data and it means we keep the data in sync. It is very important for us to know exactly where we left off in the event of any disaster or contingency. We can always rely on, or resort to, the data that we have as a backup or a failover. Also, in the event of a contingency, or even for doing a mock contingency exercise, the speed of retrieval of data and the speed of getting back up and running — minimizing the downtime — is important. That's where the second feature comes into play.

What needs improvement?

There are two areas which I would recommend for improvement. One is when we are trying to upgrade any virtual machines, we have to stop the virtual machines that have been replicated in Zerto and then upgrade or update to the virtual machines onsite. Instead of having to do it manually, there should be some way of automating that particular function.

And when it comes to AWS failover, the documentation has a lot of scope for improvement. It's come a long way since we implemented it, from the scantiness of documentation that was available to do a failover into AWS or recover from AWS, but they could still do a much better job of providing more details, how-to's, tutorials, etc.

In terms of additional features that I would like to see included in the next releases, if they could provide us some kind of long-term storage option, that would be the best thing. Then it could be a storage and a failover solution combined into one.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Zerto for two-and-a-half years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's a very stable solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It scales very well, in terms of the data size and the number of sites that we want to add on. It has scaled very well, at least in the last two releases.

We have plans to increase usage, but as it is we are using it for about 75 percent of the data at this point. The balance of the data will come onboard by early next year.

We have about 25 people using Zerto, and they're mostly database and storage administrators, infrastructure people, and security people. 

How are customer service and technical support?

We have not used the technical support. One thing I can say is that they have a very friendly team of engineers. If you have a problem, they are at your beck and call. You can call them and get it resolved.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We were using another solution but I don't want to name it. The primary reason we switched was the ability to restore the. Our main goal was not only to have good replication of data, but to be able to restore the data as quickly as possible in the event of any contingency, whether planned or unplanned. 

From that standpoint, when we put Zerto against the existing product, what took us a few hours in that product took us a few minutes with Zerto. That was primarily the goal. Even though this product was a little more expensive than what we had prior to going with Zerto, we still went ahead with Zerto.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is very straightforward compared to a lot of others. The user interface is very simple and very intuitive. It goes one step at a time so you can logically follow through the steps to set it up. Whether it's a small site or a big site, it doesn't really matter.

Overall our deployment took about two weeks. We had a detailed project plan, as we always do with any new products or projects that we come up with.

It doesn't require any full-time staff to deploy and maintain the solution. Once you turn on the process, all that somebody needs to do is just monitor the schedule and see whether it's doing things the way it has been programmed.

What was our ROI?

We have absolutely seen return on our investment with Zerto. We do mock disaster recovery exercises and, in every such exercise since we've gone ahead with Zerto, we've been able to restore the data within a few minutes, very easily, without any business loss. That gives us the confidence to say that, even in the case of a real disaster, we should be able to restore the data.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We didn't evaluate any other options.

What other advice do I have?

Know your use case and then do a thorough proof of concept with your use case to see whether the solution works for your environment and your specific use case. Have a well-defined project plan and negotiate your way with the vendor.

The biggest lesson our organization has learned in using Zerto is that you should understand the product very well. You should understand what the product is capable of doing and leverage the options and features that are available in the product to the optimal extent. 

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
it_user373668 - PeerSpot reviewer
Service Manager, Cloud Recovery at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Continuous VM replication and ability to choose recovery point are key
Pros and Cons
  • "Failover using Zerto is simply a one-button click, and it does everything else in restoring the VMs at a different datacenter (recovery site)."
  • "Zerto is an excellent solution for cloud-based environments, but for DIY clients who have another site to recover their systems it also works well."
  • "Adding or changing VPGs (Virtual Protection Groups) may require restarting replication."

How has it helped my organization?

Virtualization, and Zerto improves business continuity and disaster recovery tremendously.

What is most valuable?

  • Continuous replication for VMs
  • Ability to choose point in time to recover from
  • RPOs in seconds
  • RTO in minutes

What needs improvement?

Adding or changing VPGs (Virtual Protection Groups) may require restarting replication.

For how long have I used the solution?

One to three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The product is very stable; no issues with upgrading to new releases.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Adding additional VMs is fairly easy. Adding or changing VPGs (Virtual Protection Groups) may require restarting replication.

How are customer service and technical support?

Very good.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Previously we used SRM (Site Recovery Manager). Zerto is much easier to set up and configure. Failover using Zerto is simply a one-button click, and it does everything else in restoring the VMs at a different datacenter (recovery site).

How was the initial setup?

Initial setup is fairly easy and the environment can be protected in just a few hours.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

You can find providers of a DRaaS solution with Zerto license fees for each VM. Zerto only sells to partners and they have a robust partner organization.

What other advice do I have?

The product works and does what is says. Zerto provides enterprise-class, virtual replication and BC/DR solutions for private, hybrid, and public clouds. Future releases will provide multiple destinations/locations to store the replicated data.

Most companies have used backup software for their protection, or disk array replication. Zerto leapfrogs those data protection methods and provides a much more affordable BC/DR solution, with improved RPO and RTO.

Zerto is an excellent solution for cloud-based environments, but for DIY clients who have another site to recover their systems it also works well.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Zerto Partner.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Senior Vmware administrator at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Vendor
The top dog of DR IMO.

What is most valuable?

The ease of daily operations. This program takes almost no interaction on a daily basis.

How has it helped my organization?

Zerto has given us a sense of security. To know that we can move our production data to our DR site in minutes lets me sleep much better at night.

What needs improvement?

Support for Hyper-V which is on the way.

For how long have I used the solution?

In production for almost 1 year now.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

Absolutely none. I was replicating my first VPG in less than an hour.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Only things that I have caused myself.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Started with 50 vms today protecting almost 300 and I have had no issues.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

I would give it an 8/10. Alot of customer service is handled through back and forth emails but once you get someone on a phone call and screen sharing the level goes to a 10/10.

Technical Support:

9/10

Alot of customer service is handled through back and forth emails but once you get someone on a phone call and screen sharing the level goes to a 10/10.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We tried out SRM but chose Zerto because of the ease of use.

How was the initial setup?

Very straightforward and I had a tech with me the whole way.

What about the implementation team?

Implemented in-house and once again it was a PAINLESS process.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

SRM and went with Zerto so we would not have to use SAN-to-SAN replication.

What other advice do I have?

The best thing is that all you need is storage and vcenter in two locations and you have met all requirements to install and protect your vm's.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Security Architect at a computer software company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
Quick and helpful support, straightforward to set up, saves us time and resources
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature for us is accelerating cloud adoption, as it helps provide greater speed for disaster recovery. Ultimately, this saves us time, as well as resources."
  • "It took some time to get to know the solution in general, and exactly what functions each of the features is used for."

What is our primary use case?

We are using Zerto to facilitate cloud adoption in the organization. Our product teams are migrating their VMware workloads to the cloud, and Zerto is helping with that task.

How has it helped my organization?

Zerto provides us with continuous data protection and it is working well for us so far. It has matched our requirements, especially in terms of compliance and security considerations. The solutions in our environment are working together to make everything achievable in terms of different certifications.

We have only been using Zerto for less than a year, and have not had much time to consider long-term data retention. However, it is our intention to use this capability in the future.

Using this product has enabled our leaders to guide the business through our transition to the cloud. It has allowed us to implement a cloud-based disaster recovery solution.

Having a cloud-based disaster recovery solution, rather than a physical one, saves us in terms of resources. I don't have exact numbers in terms of money, but I can say that in the short time that we have been using Zerto, it has saved us between 10% and 20% resource-wise, including time.

We do not have any real use cases so far, but our model shows that we will need fewer people involved when we failback or move workloads. I expect that we will require 10% to 20% fewer resources in these situations.

So far, we have not had a use case where we had less downtime because of Zerto.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature for us is accelerating cloud adoption, as it helps provide greater speed for disaster recovery. Ultimately, this saves us time, as well as resources.

This product is easy to use. Initially, we had some issues and hiccups but we worked with the solution engineers and were able to rectify the problems and move forward.

What needs improvement?

When we initially set up the product, we didn't know about the exact features. Some of them were discussed in different wording. It took some time to get to know the solution in general, and exactly what functions each of the features is used for. They seemed more like hidden features to us.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Zerto for close to one year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The availability of Zerto has been good for us, so far. We have not experienced any issues with it.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Being a cloud-based solution, it can be scaled as per our requirements. I don't see any issues with it. We have three people who work with it, although not on a daily basis. They are technical analysts and product engineers.

They were more hands-on during the PoC and deploying it, and they will be involved if we have any issues.

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical support from Zerto is good and they help us all the time.

The turnaround time is good, as well as the help that they give us in understanding and resolving problems.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We are still using our previous solution for backups. We are switching away from it because we will be able to take advantage of automation and use fewer resources.

In terms of cost, using Zerto saves us approximately 15% over our previous solution.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward. It was easy to set up the PoC and the results were good. Setting it up took a few hours and when it came time to move to production, it was in terms of days.

What about the implementation team?

My team was responsible for deployment.

What was our ROI?

We have seen a return on our investment in terms of time and resources.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated several other solutions prior to selecting Zerto.

We chose Zero because it is more user-friendly, and better overall.

What other advice do I have?

My advice for anybody who is considering Zerto is that it's user-friendly, easy to use, and easy to deploy. So far, Zerto has been working fine for us and my team has not had any complaints.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1246608 - PeerSpot reviewer
Works at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Live failover testing is seamless and limits production downtime
Pros and Cons
  • "The fact that we are able to test the failover of live systems during regular hours is invaluable to our organization."
  • "The GUI could be streamlined a bit more to enhance the administrative tasks."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution for DR failover/testing on our DR site. We're a Windows/VMware environment and replicate 25 virtual machines from our primary data center to our disaster recovery site. The solution allows us to perform live failovers without shutting down our production systems.

How has it helped my organization?

Zerto has made the testing and the actual failover process of our replicated virtual machines seamless. The product has relieved the administrative burden for the IT staff responsible for the disaster recovery implementation of the organization. Adding new virtual machines is quick and easy, and managing the environment is straightforward.  

What is most valuable?

Failover testing is the most valuable feature. The fact that we are able to test the failover of live systems during regular hours is invaluable to our organization. No longer do we have to schedule failovers of our systems, which brings down our production environment.

What needs improvement?

There are a couple of minor areas that could use improvement.

The GUI could be streamlined a bit more to enhance the administrative tasks. I would also like to be able to throttle the email alerts, as sometimes they become a bit noisy, and get tough to keep on top of.

For how long have I used the solution?

Our company has been using the product for four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This is a very stable solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is easy to add new licenses for growth.

How are customer service and technical support?

Support has always been readily available if there were issues.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We never used a different solution.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is pretty straightforward and seems to be in line with similar products.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We did not evaluate other products before choosing this solution.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Team Lead, Virtualization/Converged at a insurance company with 501-1,000 employees
Vendor
Zert0 accomplishes everything advertised and much more...

What is most valuable?

Leveraging 'Move' to perform VC-to-VC migrations with little downtime.

How has it helped my organization?

Has simplified our DR/BC strategy and allows us to quickly protect Production applications that require low RPO's. We've done several fail-over tests with documented results. We feel Zert0 will only compliment our SDDC strategy.

For how long have I used the solution?

POC'd the product for 2 months and purchased in March of 2014.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

None.. Implementation was simple and quick. We were replicating vms in a matter of hours.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Nothing to date

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

Customer service has been excellent

Technical Support:

Technical support has been exceptional

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We've used traditional LUN based replication which can be challenging in any virtual environment. Zert0 gave us the granularity to replicate VMDKs to any target datastore.

How was the initial setup?

Setup was simple and straightforward. We encountered no issues.

What about the implementation team?

We spent weeks doing a POC and literally installed and re-installed multiple times to see if there were any impacts on our infrastructure. There were none and it worked as advertised.

What was our ROI?

N/A

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We had capacity so our only setup costs were building a couple of VMs to install the Zert0 Consoles on and licensing of the product. Minimal when compared to SRM, Recover Point and Storage.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We did a POC with SRM and researched Recover Point extensively.

What other advice do I have?

I feel because the product is so simplistic yet extremely robust and effective management may perceive Zert0 as not being Enterprise worthy when in reality, it is. Bottom line, its a great product that brings standardization and simplicity to DR/BC.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Zerto Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: June 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Zerto Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.